A political party is dying before our eyes — and I don’t mean the Democrats. I’m talking about the “mainstream media,” which is being destroyed by the opposition (or worse, the casual disdain) of George Bush’s Republican Party; by competition from other news outlets (led by the internet and Fox’s canny Roger Ailes); and by its own fraying journalistic standards.

Exactly. And this latest cover is proof that Newsweek's rapidly shrinking audience isn't becoming smaller; it's merely becoming more selective, as I wrote in December. And it's a two-way street: call all your readers socialists, and only socialists will read your magazine.

Related: "Our journalists know that good men are often despised by the mob; it just never seems to occur to them that they might be the mob themselves."